Gov. Bob McDonnell's senior economic adviser, Bob Sledd was quoted in the Richmond Times Dispatch yesterday saying: "Virginia will seek to promote sustainable communities, provide a range of housing options, and prevent and reduce homelessness in Virginia".

Sledd also announced the administration's plans to create a "state housing trust fund" to finance affordable housing communities in Virginia called for in Bob McDonnell's Executive Order #10 signed in April, 2010.

This is code for government manipulation of the market and the erosion of private property rights.

In other words, this administration is dedicated to promoting the Owellian ideas of the United Nations and socialists like Gro Harlem Brundtland and Maurice Strong to control where and how you live. They'll follow the lead of liberals to provide funding to reduce housing costs for those displaced by their egregious land use policies.

This is nothing short of a "redistribution of the wealth" of Virginians to solve the very problems they help to create.

In an earlier critique of McDonnell's EO, Ron Utt of the Virginia Institute and Heritage Foundation eloquently points out the impact of restrictive land use regulations on the housing market and the economy.

Utt wrote:

"According to the leading housing data firm RealtyTrac, in 2009 Virginia ranked 16th worst among all states in terms of its foreclosure rate..."

"...the state's foreclosure problems stem from the state's exceptionally high home prices in comparison to the incomes of its residents, and these high home prices are due to land shortages caused by abusive zoning. Housing is considered "affordable" if median home prices in an area are no more than three times the median household income in that area. This ratio is called the "median multiple.""

In the 70's, California adopted "sustainable community" policies imposing strict land use regulations to discourage building and growth. As a consequence, in 2006 and 2007 the median multiple in California soared to more than 10 .

Some Virginia communities embraced "sustainable community" policies with similar consequences. For example, in Northern Virginia the median multiple hit 5.6, Richmond went to 4.1, and Hampton Roads to 4.7.

Not surprisingly, RealtyTrac's analysis of regional foreclosure patterns reveals that the state's highest foreclosure rates are concentrated in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Richmond area, which have the most abusive land use regulations in the state.

Sustainable development, sustainable communities, livable communities, and smart growth are all warm and fuzzy terms used to describe government control over where and how you live, to replace free enterprise with public/private partnerships, and to redistribute wealth.

These are not the principles of a conservative.